For my first blog post here, I’m going to let you in on a little secret – I had trouble writing this article. When we first decided that we were going to do a blog, we split up the responsibilities and then broke off with enthusiasm to go write our articles. But, when it was my time to contribute, I sat around and tried to think of what to write. And I thought. And I thought. And nothing came to mind.

So, I started putting it off. I had other work to do, so I felt that I could at least try to be productive. But the longer I put it off, the more urgent it seemed to get. We needed something for the blog! After a longer-than-it-should-have-been had passed, I finally sat down with the determination to get it done no matter what. I’d lock myself in my room until I could write something if I had to. Anything! Please, for the love of personal development, let me think of something good to write! And then I saw it.

My sketchbook has the mighty words “JUST GET STARTED” sprawled across its cover, resplendent against a yellow background. It’s rather eye-catching and is something that I frequently look at there on my desk. I love that blotted, yellow notebook – its advice has never steered me wrong. Turns out, it was serendipity that I found it right when I decided I wanted to get into drawing. For that’s what I had decided to do – to just get started on something I hadn’t done before. And now, that little book is fat with works I have done – almost all of them from my early period of clumsy learning. Now, seeing it there on my desk in my hour of need, not only am I reminded of the message that helped me to kickstart trying to commit to art, but I’m also proud of everything that I’ve done already. For like this blog, art was something that I struggled with.

For you see, dear readers, I have never been an “artsy” guy. In fact, growing up I just about missed every art class we ever had in school due to some scheduling conflicts (Weird, right?). Besides, I had never really been interested in making art – though that’s not to say I didn’t have an appreciation for it. But it wasn’t something that I ever really got a chance to do. And so, I grew into adulthood without much of a background in it.

But then, as an adult, I think I got interested in drawing because there was a confluence of two things that happened in my life. The first was, Sam, my business partner, and I decided we wanted to pursue personal development in order to build a company and lives that we were proud of. So, as comes naturally to those who want to grow, exploration into new fields and creating and exploring opportunities came with it. Due to this, I started looking more at art as a field of interest and began searching for new artists. After many marvelous, beautiful, and often downright weird adventures through art,  I came away supremely inspired and with a smattering of some bad ideas about maybe trying this “art” thing out.

At around the same time as these ideas were forming, I came across that second thing – an online article discussing creating art. It was just an ordinary day, and I wasn’t expecting to find anything notable in my feed, but sometimes life has a way of giving you things that just stick with you. In the article, a man who often felt that the art in galleries was too simplistic (“My kid could do that!”) was challenged to create the paintings he was derisive of. But after trying it, he found out that he loved it. He loved how making that type of painting made him feel. I think the article ended with looking back on him many years later and showcasing his large volume of work. After all those years of painting the main point that the now-artist made, upon reflection, was that before, he hadn’t understood the process artists went through and how meaningful it was to create.

So I wanted to know too. Drawing inspiration from the artists that motivated me and seeking to understand how it felt, I wanted to know how it would make my art-avoidant self feel. Maybe I too had never really understood art because I didn’t understand what it meant to create. Thus inspired, and hoping to live the Upgraded Us ethos by bettering myself with new skills, I climbed to the nearest mountaintop and screamed to the heavens that I would draw! Well that’s what it felt like anyway. So, (after a rapid and completely fictional descent) I went out to the art store and picked up that little yellow notebook – and a surreal sense that the universe was speaking to me.

Now, two years later, I am drawing every day and I love it. I’ve made it a habit, and I can see the improvement. I try to push myself to draw new things – challenging things for me. I know I am still learning and that even though I don’t consider myself to be a good artist, I know I am better than I was. All I needed to do was just get started. Sometimes that’s all you need to do to find those worthwhile things that stick with you. So, I hope, dear readers, that with this start to a new blogging adventure, we can make something good – maybe even something that will better ourselves. The only way to find out is to just get started. – Decker